Completeness of birth registration in Brazil: an overview of methods and data sources

We provide an analysis of the main sources of data used to estimate fertility schedules in
developing countries, giving special attention to Brazil. In addition to the brief history of
various data sources, we present several indirect demographic methods, commonly used
to estimate fertility and assess the quality of data. From the methods used, the Synthetic
Relational Gompertz model gives the most robust estimates of fertility, independent of
the data source considered. We conclude that different demographic data sources and
methods generate differing estimates of fertility and that the country should invest in
quality of birth statistics.